"A Strange Bond"

Note: TF, who still hasn't slept yet, crashes at Alpha's place after he calms down. They tackle the journals again the next day after he's worked and slept again, and they get more than what they bargained for. He knows his own limits in terms of what he can and can't handle, and he always has, but Alpha sometimes has trouble with that. While TF isn't the controlling type, he finally decides that enough is enough. Just a warning, the subject matter later in this chapter is very dark and disturbing, and deals with Alpha's past. I'm seriously considering changing the rating to 'M' due to minor character death and other things that might be emotionally upsetting. Starts out with fluff, ends with 'holy crap'. You've been warned!

"Chapter 19: Dark Past"

March 10th

Tooth Fairy, already somewhat tired from not having slept that day, was exhausted by the time he was quiet again. He hadn't cried this hard since that night on the rooftop, but the reason for it was entirely different, and now he felt so much better. Still, he was in no hurry to let go of Alpha, and she didn't seem inclined to rush him. In fact, her gentle rocking was having quite a soothing effect on him, and he didn't even realize he was falling asleep until his arms slid down from her back. The weight of them falling jolted him, and he snapped fully awake once more.

Alpha wiped his cheeks with her hands when he sat back and blinked. "Did ye fall asleep?"

"Sorry..." He sniffled, rifling through his pockets for a hankie, but he'd forgotten to grab one before work the night before, and he accepted the one she offered and blew his nose with a loud 'honk'. He noticed in passing that it was actually one of his. Really, at this point, each of them had a few of the other's, and neither of them really cared. "I didn't sleep today..."

"You're goin' tae be a zombie at work tonight..." She told him.

"I know...It wouldn't be the first time." He stuffed the used hankie in his pocket and rubbed his red eyes as he rested his elbows on the table. He knew he should go home and sleep, but...

Alpha could see how tired he was, and she noticed that he was making no attempt to get up and leave. She rubbed his back a little. "Why don't ye go get some sleep?"

His heart sank at the thought of going back to his empty house, and he shook his head.

"Why not?" She asked softly.

"Well, it's embarrassing..." He mumbled.

"Just tell me. Nightmares?"

He shook his head.

"Then what?"

Tooth Fairy rubbed his face, unable to look at her as he reluctantly did as she asked. "I don't wanna be alone, okay?"

"Well, who says ye have to?" Alpha smiled, and she elaborated when he gave her a confused look. "I mean, my bed's not as comfortable as yours, but you can rest here if ye want. I can wake you up so you can be ready for work on time. What do ye reckon?"

This caught him by surprise, and he nearly said 'no thanks' out of simple reflex. No one had ever made him an offer like that before, and he didn't quite know how to respond at first.

"One way or another, you need to sleep," Alpha reasoned, "And if ye need company too, here I am. It's up to you."

He smiled and he shook his head. "How'd I get so lucky?"

"I take it that's a yes?" Alpha smiled back.

He nodded, then hesitated before asking, "You mind if I go brush my teeth?"

He's the only man I know who carries a toothbrush and toothpaste with him whenever he goes somewhere. Alpha shook her head; it was admittedly a bit of a weird habit, but she liked his little quirks. Lord knew she had a few of her own! "Not if you don't mind a bit o' light. I thought I'd just read a book to pass the time. One of those, I mean," She pointed at her bookshelf to clarify.

He nodded and gave her a peck on the cheek as he got up. When he went to brush his teeth, he got a good look at his own face in her bathroom mirror and winced. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was red and blotchy from crying. Man, do I look awful...

Alpha came over with an Agatha Christie novel after he got settled under the quilt, and asked, "Mind if I join ye?"

If he wasn't so tired, and if there wasn't an unspoken understanding that they wouldn't take things any further than kissing for now, he would have thought this was going in another direction and been torn between excitement and panic. He had no experience, and she had made it clear that she wasn't ready to take that step either, so his mind didn't even go there. Instead, he scooted over to welcome her company and gave a little snort of amusement. "It's your bed."

Alpha kicked off her shoes and sat up in bed beside him as he turned to face the wall, his head resting on her only pillow. Because of his wings, he couldn't just roll onto his back and over to his other side without risking one of them getting pinched in the process; instead, he had to switch sides by turning onto his belly. Alpha hadn't noticed this when she'd stayed at his house when he was sick, but to be fair, she had been asleep herself.

But he didn't fall asleep. He lay with his eyes shut, listening to the occasional quiet rustle of Alpha turning a page, but something nagged at him. After about twenty minutes of him trying without success to sleep, he heaved a quiet sigh. "Wouldn't ya know it..."

"Can't sleep?" She guessed.

"No...S'kinda silly, and I never told anyone this before, but I'm used to hugging a pillow..." He admitted, and internally cringed; this was a pathetic thing for a guy to do, much less admit to! Or, at least, he supposed it was. He did hear her chuckle, but somehow he got the feeling she wasn't laughing at him.

"So, pretend I'm a pillow," She suggested.

"What?" He craned his neck to look back at her, unsure if she was kidding or not.

"Well, ye did it before," She gently teased, nudging his back.

"That was by accident, and so did you." He rolled his eyes, but it was an attractive offer. Like her, he was a hugger, and he still kind of needed one. He turned towards her again and draped his arm over her waist as he snuggled up against her side. "You sure you're okay with this?"

"You're my boyfriend," She put her arm across his back; from that angle, her arm lay between his wings, and her hand rested on his side. "I'm pretty sure this is allowed. Not putting pressure on your wings, am I?"

"Mm-mmm..." He mumbled as sleep loomed, turning the word over in his mind. 'Boyfriend' huh?...I guess it's official now. "I, uh..."

"Hm?" Alpha, who had just turned her attention back to her book, looked back down and raised an eyebrow.

He chickened out. "Nothin'. Night."

"Night."

March 11th

One o'clock found Alpha at home, sweeping her floor. She hadn't slept well at all, and had decided to take a personal day to recharge a little. This left Harry in charge for the time being, but he had orders to report to her if her presence was needed for something important. Now, as she came back in from sweeping the dust out the front door, her eyes strayed to the chest of journals.

Tooth Fairy had woken up in much better spirits the night before, and before he left to get ready for work he told her he could come over at around two o'clock the next afternoon to read through the journals with her, if she still wanted to do that. When she expressed reluctance to let him look, he reminded her of their promise, and she finally agreed.

Alpha didn't want to read them anymore, and yet she felt compelled to. As long as those journals existed, she would always be drawn to what was inside. And, blast Tooth Fairy's intuition, he knew it. She didn't want him to see her break, and she had a feeling that when she reached a certain part she would break. She could simply put the journals in storage, never going near them again, couldn't she?

No. No, she couldn't.

And he knew she wouldn't. So, he was coming over, and he probably was going to see her at her worst despite her efforts to 'play normal'. What a fine mess...

Maybe I can read ahead before he gets here...

It seemed like a victimless crime. She would know what was coming anyway, or so she thought, so what was the harm in taking one little peek? He would never know.

Alpha turned resolutely away from the chest and picked up her Agatha Christie novel.

But I'd know.

Alpha fumbled her book and dropped it when someone knocked on the door. "Who is it?"

Tooth Fairy pitched his voice lower than usual. "It's the boogeyman! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!"

She laughed as she retrieved her book and marked her page. "Can't be; he's on vacation. C'mon in, Roy."

He came in, looking rather surprised. "You mean there really is a boogeyman?"

"No, I'm just teasin' ye," she waved a hand, and they exchanged a kiss. "The legend doesn't really give 'him' a specific appearance. The boogeyman is just a concept the humans came up with to scare their kids into good behavior. So, you could say everyone in this place is 'the boogeyman' in a way. How was your night?"

"It was fine." He frowned as he got a good look at her face. The last time he had seen her look anything like this was the day she'd almost fainted. That was the same day he'd learned how badly The Hollow was doing at the time. She didn't look nearly as bad now as she did then, but even so, he wondered if it was wise to continue with this course of action. Was this healthy, what they were getting ready to do? "Did you sleep at all last night?"

She shrugged. "I dozed on and off. It's getting a little bit closer to the full moon. I always have trouble sleeping then."

He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "That's not until the twenty-ninth."

Alpha rolled her eyes and tapped his arm as she passed him on her way to the sink. "Trust me, if anyone knows when the full moon is, I do."

Tooth Fairy folded his arms. "But I'm right; the full moon is on the twenty-ninth. Today's only the eleventh. And you're being evasive. Is everything okay?"

She offered him a glass of water, which he accepted, and got one for herself. "Nothing happened, if that's what you mean. But going by the dates in the journal I'm currently reading, it's getting pretty close to when I arrived here..."

Which meant they were getting close to the deaths of her mate and son. Seeing the way she looked now, he was really having second thoughts about this. "Alpha?"

"Aye?"

"We don't have to do this, you know."

He went to take her hand, but she pulled back and turned away to dump her water down the drain. "No, you don't have to do this. You didn't work for them."

"Alpha, you don't have to-" He reared back his head as she put down her glass and rounded on him, but she didn't raise her voice, nor did she look angry. She looked haunted. Was this the kind of guilt she had seen in his eyes?

"It's not that easy. You don't understand."

Tooth Fairy gently held her shoulders as he looked her square in the eye. "Then help me understand."

She slowly shook her head as her eyes grew bright with unshed tears. "You don't have blood on your hands."

He glanced at his own hands in confusion, then realized what she meant, and his eyes widened. "You think you..."

"How many people died because of my inaction? Because I didn't see what was going on right under me nose? I can't even begin to make amends for it if I don't even know what I did...or didnae do."

Tooth Fairy now had a small taste of what she must have felt every time he blamed himself for what happened to Brinna. "Alpha, these people are free now because you took a stand! You stood with us, and we stood with you. You risked everything for a kid you'd never even met before! How many times did you tell me what happened to my sister wasn't my fault? And you were right. No, don't look away. Please, look at me."

"It's not the same thing." A tear ran down her cheek.

"No," he agreed, "it isn't. It's not the same thing, but it's the same idea. You're blaming yourself for things you had no control over. You didn't know."

She looked away, and this time he let her, but he didn't let go of her shoulders right away. He waited for her to speak, but she didn't, and he wiped the tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

"Roy...I don't..."

Again he waited, but she didn't continue, and he sighed. "So, you're determined to keep going?" She nodded, and he nodded back. "Fine. Then I'm not going anywhere. But a promise is a promise." He held up a finger, then hugged her. "You have to stop if it gets to be too much."

She sighed and hugged back. "Can't talk you out of this, can I?"

"You could try, but we'd end up talking in circles," he replied, and this provoked a snicker.

"You really are stubborn," She informed him before stepping back. "Well..."

"Well..."

They trudged back to the table and sat down, and Alpha brought out one of the leather-bound journals. The leather was ancient and cracked, and tiny brown flecks of the material rained down on the tabletop when she opened it with a 'creak'. The pages had long since yellowed, and were becoming very brittle.

Tooth Fairy noticed that the year at the top of the page was 1600, and something occurred to him. "Um...Alpha, you were born in 1512, right?"

"Aye."

"Well...This was almost a hundred years later. Sorry, but...how did you have a five-year-old son? Was he adopted, or..." Tooth Fairy braced himself, but she didn't take offense.

"No," Alpha shook her head with a little smile. "Not adopted. I've got the 'fourteen hour labor' story to prove it, but I'll spare ye."

"Then...Sorry, but how is that possible?" He shook his head, trying to work it out. "I mean...I know that human men can go on having kids indefinitely, but for women there's a cut-off point. Know what I mean?"

"I know you're blushing," Alpha teased.

"Am not." He denied this with a frown, but he could feel the heat in his cheeks, and he knew that she was right.

"I know what you mean. And the key word here is 'human'. Werewolves are a bit different, and that's probably a good thing." She half-turned to face him. "There's the bite, which is how most of us came to be...You should see the scar on me shoulder. I'm not sure where the first Werewolves came from, or how, or why, but that's beside the point. And then there's the few who are born this way from Werewolf parents. With me so far?"

"Uh-huh." Despite the delicate subject matter, he was more fascinated than bashful. He also wondered if she was putting off the task at hand, but that was just fine with him.

"As far as I know, most of us chose not to have children. It was dangerous for us back then, more so than it is now, because humans were more ready to believe in us. Which meant they actively hunted us. And, since we don't age, we couldn't stay in one place for long or people would know. So, resources were often hard to get. It just wasn't a good time for children to be born, at least for the two of us. So, we were actively trying not to get pregnant." She hesitated, but he nodded for her to continue. "This next part probably will embarrass you a little bit. It has to do with biology..."

Since they were already being frank about it and the world hadn't ended, he was all right with this. "Okay."

She cleared her throat. "Well...at one point, we thought for sure I was pregnant. I was still transforming on the full moon; that cycle continued. But...as the months wore on, I never got any bigger, and after a year or two we figured out that I had some control over whether I was fertile or not. So, we figured, 'Well, that's one less thing to worry about, then', and things went on as usual. Moving from place to place, finding work when we could. Leaving under cover of darkness when people started whisperin'."

"Ohhh," Tooth Fairy hadn't even thought of something like that. "Heh, ya learn something new every day."

"Aye," She nodded. "Then we hit a ten-year streak of very good luck, and we thought it might be safe to have a child. And when my mind turned towards that possible future, things started up again, and I was pregnant within the year."

Tooth Fairy thought the look on her face was because of what happened to her mate and son, but what she said next truly puzzled him.

"And two years later, I got pregnant with Andrew." Alpha rubbed her forehead. She thought she might be getting a migraine.

The color drained from his face as a horrible realization struck him. He had just assumed that Andrew was her first and only child, and it never even occurred to him that more might have come before. But what had happened to the baby? Choosing his words carefully, he asked, "Do you want to tell me?"

She didn't say anything right away; this wasn't an easy thing for her to talk about. Still, this was about disclosure, and she trusted him.

"Our first was a daughter, but she never took a breath..." Alpha looked away.

Tooth Fairy had no words, and all he could think of to do was put his arm around her. He loved kids as much as she did, and to know that she had lost two children, one of which she never even got to know, just hit him like a kick to the gut.

"So...in theory, I can still have children, but with my track record..." Alpha gave an almost helpless shrug, then cleared her throat. "Anyway...that brings us up to speed."

He shook his head. This was a lot to unpack! And after admitting all that, she wanted to read more about the real monsters of The Hollow? Then he reminded himself that, to her, this was a very old story, and she had long since had time to process everything. Well...maybe not everything, but probably most of it. "I don't even know what to say..."

"Not much ye can say. It happened a long time ago," Alpha reached up and gave his fingers a squeeze.

Happened a long time ago...

"Alpha...so did Brinna's disappearance," Tooth Fairy reminded her. "And I made peace with that. Then I learned the truth, and it just about killed me. Are you sure you wanna do this?"

Alpha remembered the Tooth Fairy's desperation to get to the bottom of things, how he had almost put Buddy's disappearance on the back burner for a time, albeit unintentionally. She remembered that single-minded compulsion, and she understood it very well, because that was where she was now. The difference was, she knew for sure that her family was long gone. She answered his question with another question. "What would you do?"

He hung his head and shut his eyes, preparing for what was to come, because he had an awful feeling that she would end up shattered and he would have to be the one to pick up the pieces. And he was ready to. But he wished this didn't have to happen. "Probably the same thing you're doing. Okay...if we're gonna do this...let's do this."

And so, they sat with the book on the table between them and silently read together, each waiting for the other to finish before turning the page. Alpha was right; a lot of the elegant cursive was nothing more than word vomit; Viola certainly did like to gloat. Tooth Fairy rested the side of his head against the side of Alpha's when Brinna's name came up again.

Viola was angry that three of the thirteen Fairy Rings had disappeared, and she went on about how the Fairy magic she and Avery had stolen was unpredictable at times and difficult to control. Much of it had leached into the rock of the cavern in which Brinna had been killed, causing the previously dull rock to glow with a gentle blue light. Magic that 'should' have been theirs to control went to the people of The Hollow to enhance whatever innate abilities they had...at least, as much as Brinna's angry spirit was able to take back.

"Blue was her favorite color..." Tooth Fairy murmured. "Green was a close second."

Alpha looked over at his face, but while he did look saddened by what he'd just read, he was still dry-eyed and composed. "Do ye need to stop?"

"No, I'm all right." And he was. He shook his head. "Do you?"

"No."

Then the name 'Fenella Macauley' appeared for the first time, and Alpha leaned back from the journal as if repelled by an invisible force. "Oh God, here we go..."

Tooth Fairy began to pull the journal over to his side of the table so that he could read it himself, hoping that he could spare her the more upsetting information and only relay back what she needed to know, but Alpha pressed her hand down on the page and shook her head. "You sure?"

She nodded, and he gave it back against his better judgment. Viola's next entry was more concise, now that there was a solid goal.

'The humans are obsessed with hunting these things. At this rate, Werewolves will be extinct within the next century. If we're going to get one, it has to be now. I was lucky to locate this small family group. Now all I need to do is catch the one I want. I've been watching them on and off for ten years now. The cub is unruly, as children are, and I don't want to bring him here. Children are too much work, and I have better things to do than play nursemaid to a hellspawn. The parents will never allow him to be taken, either.'

Tooth Fairy heard Alpha's breathing turn shallow, and he looked at her face. She was pale, her eyes intent on the page, her lips slightly parted. She didn't look well at all. "Alpha, are you okay?"

"Fine," She said, a little too quickly.

'The father will have to go, of course. Transformed, he's eight feet tall, and he's got a mind of his own. Would losing his family break his will, or bolster it? He poses too much of a risk to us. That only leaves the mother.'

Alpha grew more tense than ever; she pressed her hands together and brought them to her mouth. She never even registered the fact that Tooth Fairy was rubbing her back in slow, gentle circles.

The next page described what happened after what Viola cheerfully called 'the bloodbath', and Tooth Fairy's hands began to glow brighter than they ever had before; Alpha's hands remained unlit, possibly due to the shock.

'I chose the right one after all. I haven't heard a scream like that in a long time. I wonder how long she'll sit there. At least she isn't crying anymore. I was getting tired of listening to it.

Now she's digging a grave. With her bare hands, no less. How absurd! All she has to do is walk into town and get a shovel. This is taking too long. I'm bored, I'll come back later.'

Tooth Fairy covered his mouth with his glowing hand, his eyes huge in his face as he stared down at the page. He went to cover it, to prevent her from reading anymore, but she shook her head.

"No more, Alpha."

"Roy..."

"Alpha...no."

"Move your hand. Please."

He almost didn't. She was breaking her promise. Maybe not intentionally; maybe she thought she could handle it. But he couldn't deny her, and he caved. And after what happened next, he wished he'd stood firm.

'She tried to get revenge, but she was too weak to go through with it. She's ready. It's time for Avery and I to introduce ourselves.'

After such stillness, the flurry of movement at Tooth Fairy's right nearly startled him right off of his chair. Alpha disappeared into the bathroom and gave up her lunch to the porcelain god. Tooth Fairy bared his teeth and closed the book with a loud 'WHAP', and he picked it up to throw it across the room. Then he stopped himself in time. What would that accomplish? He might end up breaking something of hers, but that's about it! He went and knocked on the bathroom door just as Alpha flushed the toilet.

There was no answer, but he heard water running. And running. And running. "Alpha? Can I come in?"

"No..."

"Please, Alpha..." He could hear her rinsing out her mouth, and he wondered if he should just try the door.

"I just...I need a minute..." She sounded like she was sitting on the floor with her back against the door.

Tooth Fairy rested his forehead against the closed door and shut his eyes. He could hear her crying, and every sob tore at his very heartstrings. He pressed his hand against the wood, fingers splayed wide. He didn't know what to do, but he did know what was happening on the other side of that door. He had been there himself, once up on a time. With his panic attack, he had been desperate for help, but that was mostly because he hadn't known what it was and he was terrified. Alpha, it seemed, was just the opposite, wanting to deal with it herself, and he had never felt so helpless. The woman he loved was in pain, and she wouldn't let him near her.

"I said I'm not going anywhere," He finally told her, although he didn't know if she even heard him. "And I won't. I won't come in unless you want me to, either. But I'm here. You're not alone. So...I guess I'll just have a seat right here. Until you're ready."

Tooth Fairy sat cross-legged with his back to the bathroom door. I knew I shouldn't have gone along with this. I knew it. Well...'gone along with it' doesn't really fit, does it? Because this was my idea. Because I had to know the truth about Brinna. No...she would have read it anyway. And then she might have been alone when she read that part. This still would have happened. But what can I do, if she won't let me near her?

Then, to his surprise, she spoke to him through the closed door.

"I don't think ye know what ye're gettin' intae..."

He looked over his shoulder, but of course he only saw the grain of the wood. "What do you mean?"

"Me...This place..." Alpha sniffled, "Where ye're from...the people...they live a long time. It's...it's nae like that here. Most of'm have a human lifespan, or less. I'm just...so tired of losing people. And...and it started with my family. I get like this...at least once a year, it seems. I c-cannae be strong all the time."

He turned so that he wasn't craning his neck to look over his shoulder. Her heavy accent was back. "You are strong, even now. To live through what you've lived through...to suffer like you have, and to still find the good in this world...You have no idea how much I admire you for that. No one should have to go through what you did..."

He heard more quiet crying, and then she moved just enough to open the door and they were in each other's arms. "I'm sorry, Roy...I...broke my promise...didn't I?"

"Shhh..."

Neither of them was sure how long they sat on the floor. Alpha finally sat back, and brushed at the large wet spot on his shoulder. "Oh...I'm sorry."

"Well, you had to get me back for yesterday, right?" Tooth Fairy gave a little smile as she got herself back in order. "Mine was probably bigger to match the rest of me."

She returned his little smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Not tellin'."

"That's a 'yes', then," He nodded, then gave her back a light, brisk pat. "C'mon, let's get up. My butt's asleep."

"Fine, I'll keep my voice down."

It took him a second to register the joke, and he couldn't quite muster up a laugh. Then, when he saw her heading for the table again, he got in her path. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just putting it away," She said, truthfully.

Tooth Fairy shook his head. "I got a better idea. Let's burn 'em."

She blinked at him as if he had just spoken a foreign language. "Burn them?"

"Well, I don't normally advocate burning books, but in this case I'd make thirteen exceptions. We went through about thirty pages of 'Her Royal Highness' bragging about all the lousy things she did, and look what happened." He took her by the shoulders, something he only seemed to do when he was very serious about something, and only because he knew she would allow it. "What did we learn about how you can run this place? How much did we write down in that notebook today?"

"...Nothing." Alpha looked down, tears starting to flow once more. "But..."

"Why are you punishing yourself?" He whispered.

"I'm-I'm not, I..." But then it hit her that this was exactly what she had been doing. She walked over to her bed and sat down, and Tooth Fairy sat beside her without a word and put his arm around her. "I didn't even know I was doing it..."

"But do you know why?" He asked. He wasn't sure if he was saying the right things or not. What was it about a woman's tears that could make a man so helpless? Maybe it was because men just felt the need to fix things, and this just wasn't something he could fix. Or was that way of thinking considered outdated and sexist now? The rules changed so quickly that he found it hard to keep up!

Alpha sniffled, and then she nodded. "I had a bad feeling all that mornin'. I dreamt o' somethin' the night before, but couldnae remember what, and I was supposed tae go to market. I hadn't been there very often, only a few times in the last ten years when compared to Alexander, so we thought there was a good chance my lack of aging wouldnae be noticed. And then I noticed the looks I was getting. And I knew somethin' was up. But I willed it not tae be the case. Finished my shopping. And I was ambushed on the road on my way back."

Tooth Fairy's stomach dropped, and all he could do was listen.

She looked down at her hands, rubbing a small callus on her palm with her thumb. "I got away...but he didn't. I killed someone, Roy..."

Even someone like the Tooth Fairy, who was a pacifist for the most part, could understand the need to fight for one's life, and he shook his head. He could see her remorse as plain as day, and this just proved to him all over again that she was nothing like The Founders. "But he attacked you first. Tell me, did he ever back down, try to let you go?"

"Nooo." Alpha emphatically shook her head. "He never even said a word, he just kept comin'."

"Then you had no choice..."

"But I still did it...and I nearly did it again."

Tooth Fairy was almost numb at this point. Clearly, she viewed herself as deserving of punishment, but even if she was...hadn't she been punished enough? He shook his head. "Do you want to tell me?"

"Aye...and I won't blame ye if ye walk out the door after."

He put his hand under her chin and gently turned her head so that he could see her face. "I already told you; I'm not going anywhere."

"Don't make promises ye can't keep." Alpha smiled sadly, then sighed. "All right...It was after I...after I took care of my family. Night fell, and I waited...because it was a full moon that night. And then I found their scents. The ones who killed my family, I mean. I couldnae follow all of them, of course. So, I just followed the group until they split off to head for home, and I picked one at random."

Tooth Fairy listened with dawning horror at what he thought was coming. To kill in self defense was one thing. What she was describing now was a premeditated act. He dreaded what he was about to hear, and it occurred to him that he didn't know as much about her as he thought he did. Well...no time like the present. Time to learn. Please, Alpha...don't say what I think you're gonna say...

"I followed the trail well into the night. By the time dawn came and I changed back, I knew where I was goin'. I stayed hidden, just watchin'. I could smell what the man's wife was cooking. I could hear the man in the yard, but couldnae see him. And then a wee girl came out the front door..." Alpha sniffled, and tear fell from her eye and landed on her knuckle. "No older than my Andrew. And then her father came around the side of the house and picked her up, played with her, and...and I couldnae do it."

Tooth Fairy let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"I just...turned 'round and walked away. Lord...I was so ashamed. She was part of the reason he and his fellows did what they did...because they thought we were a threat to their families. And...I don't remember much after that. Just...a lot of walkin'." She sniffled again and dried her face with the back of her hand.

He kissed her forehead and pulled her into an embrace. "And you still think you deserve to be punished? Alpha, you walked away...You didn't do it."

"I know what it's like to want to." She mumbled.

"So do I," Tooth Fairy quietly admitted. "At that meeting, when they walked The Founders and those others into the room, it was all I could do to stay in my seat. And even back then, you were right there to help me. I was a basket case that day, and you kept my feet on the ground. I've been in that headspace. Not to that extent, no, but I can understand why you did what you did. Following that man to his house was a mistake...but you walked away before you could make an even bigger one. That matters. And that other guy...You have the right to defend yourself."

Alpha looked at him, and all she saw in his eyes was sorrow and acceptance. But no disgust, no disillusionment. She shook her head in wonder. "How can you still look at me like that, after everything I just told you?"

He moved a stray tendril of her hair out of her face with a gentle finger and smiled softly through his sadness. "Because I love you."

She smiled tearfully, and nodded. "I love you, too." Then he leaned in, but she put a finger to his lips. "Wouldn't kiss me right now, though."

Remembering, Tooth Fairy leaned back again. He sighed and regarded the journal on the table with a jaundiced eye. "The Hollow is doing fine. You're not gonna find anything useful enough to be worth the price. So...did you decide?"

Alpha nodded slowly and leaned against him. "I think it's time for a book barbecue."

They brought the chest up to where the mansion had once stood, partly to keep the wisps of glowing ash from settling on any rooftops, and partly because it just seemed fitting. Tooth Fairy had missed the 'big event', but here was something he could still participate in. Alpha brought some matches from home, explaining that she sometimes burned candles if they found any on the surface, and Tooth Fairy unceremoniously dumped the journals into a pile.

"It might take a little while," Alpha chanced upon a poker someone had left behind when they were burning The Founders' furniture, and she noticed that Tooth Fairy took a step back when he saw it. Then it dawned on her. Wrought iron. Even though the poker had a wooden handle, the rest of it was a danger to him. "Oh! No, it's all right. The books will be hard to burn. The closed covers will keep the air out, y'see. I'll handle that part."

Embarrassed, Tooth Fairy quickly relaxed. "Sorry, that was just a reflex. Here, toss me the matches, will ya? Unless you wanna do the honors."

Alpha smiled and tossed him the book of matches, and watched him squat down to get the fire started. While the pages were pressed together they kept the oxygen out, but he opened a few of the books and ripped out some of the pages to crumble up and use as kindling. As dry as the books were, and even though Viola had neglected to oil the leather covers from time to time, the books blazed up more quickly than Alpha thought they would.

All in all, it took about an hour for the fire to burn down to a pile of glowing ash, and Alpha put down the poker and went to stand with him.

Tooth Fairy wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and hugged her tight. After the last few hours, they both needed it. "I do know what I'm getting into...and I'm still not going anywhere. You're stuck with this goofy-lookin' guy until you want him gone."

She laughed softly, feeling some measure of peace after all the pain. "Well, he's goin' tae have a long wait."